Just thought I would share my experiences with you all.
I bought my Exeo with 39500 miles on the clock in January. its the Sport model in black with the CAHA 2.0 TDi CR 170PS engine.
It went into Seat for a Radio Code read and they flagged up an issue with the EGR cooler pump.
I used VCDS to check the fault and it was labeled intermittent. I replaced the pump and afterwards I noticed that the coolant pipes to the pump were not getting very hot?
I cleaned out the EGR Valve and it was very caked up with gunk !
Eventually I got it looking like this:
I did the Anti shudder valve too...
Now I looked online and decided to find a used EGR cooler to see what how clogged they got after a few thousand miles. I found one which had done 9800 miles and bought it for £50. It looked fine ! ?? Like new ?
Last week I has my cambelt fitted and asked the garage to fit my 9800 mile EGR cooler.
When the job was done I was surprised to see that my original one was totally clogged !
Happy that my car was running great and had a nice clean cooler, I decided to try and clean the old one...
I thought that the pipes would be fairly thick and strong as they were stainless steel, but i was wrong !!
I used Carb cleaner, brake cleaner engine cleaner... and stupidly an old coat hanger. The carbon was as solid as wood so I tried to soak it and attached the coat hanger to a drill to drill through the carbon. my thoughts were that the carbon would be softer than the stainless tubes and the coat hanger was mild steel to softer...
Is came out Very clean
I still had 4 holes blocked so i was contemplating getting the cooler Ultrasonically cleaned
as they were too difficult to get too... Then I noticed this !
It was damaged caused by my exploits with the coat hanger !
Hmmmm, I think I need to pressure test the cooler side before I spend money on getting it cleaned I thought ! GLAD I DID!
The pressure test was done using a vacuum pump with gauge and sealed hoses...
DAMN !... The pressure was leaking.. I could hear a small whistling sound.
I realised that the cooler was knackered and I have binned it...
SO I just thought that altho' I have been a bit of a tool, I should share this experience, as others may do this job one day and may not have a second cooler to hand. It could certainly ruin someone's weekend !
We live and learn !
Jonathan
I bought my Exeo with 39500 miles on the clock in January. its the Sport model in black with the CAHA 2.0 TDi CR 170PS engine.
It went into Seat for a Radio Code read and they flagged up an issue with the EGR cooler pump.
I used VCDS to check the fault and it was labeled intermittent. I replaced the pump and afterwards I noticed that the coolant pipes to the pump were not getting very hot?
I cleaned out the EGR Valve and it was very caked up with gunk !
Eventually I got it looking like this:
I did the Anti shudder valve too...
Now I looked online and decided to find a used EGR cooler to see what how clogged they got after a few thousand miles. I found one which had done 9800 miles and bought it for £50. It looked fine ! ?? Like new ?
Last week I has my cambelt fitted and asked the garage to fit my 9800 mile EGR cooler.
When the job was done I was surprised to see that my original one was totally clogged !
Happy that my car was running great and had a nice clean cooler, I decided to try and clean the old one...
I thought that the pipes would be fairly thick and strong as they were stainless steel, but i was wrong !!
I used Carb cleaner, brake cleaner engine cleaner... and stupidly an old coat hanger. The carbon was as solid as wood so I tried to soak it and attached the coat hanger to a drill to drill through the carbon. my thoughts were that the carbon would be softer than the stainless tubes and the coat hanger was mild steel to softer...
Is came out Very clean
I still had 4 holes blocked so i was contemplating getting the cooler Ultrasonically cleaned
as they were too difficult to get too... Then I noticed this !
It was damaged caused by my exploits with the coat hanger !
Hmmmm, I think I need to pressure test the cooler side before I spend money on getting it cleaned I thought ! GLAD I DID!
The pressure test was done using a vacuum pump with gauge and sealed hoses...
DAMN !... The pressure was leaking.. I could hear a small whistling sound.
I realised that the cooler was knackered and I have binned it...
SO I just thought that altho' I have been a bit of a tool, I should share this experience, as others may do this job one day and may not have a second cooler to hand. It could certainly ruin someone's weekend !
We live and learn !
Jonathan
